Prague/Kutná Hora

in prague! its great! took the night train from krakow which wasn't good but we've had aful day here which has been great! prague is amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! sooooooooo gorgeous, incredible architecture, etc. very obvious that the city was very powerful and had lots of wealth. the architecture and decoration on buildings is quite remarkable -- very noticeably different from, say, grenoble which wasn't a wealthy city and doesn't have any special archiecture/buildings/cathedrals. so pretty. perfect weather today. not a cloud in the sky. hostel RIGHT in the middle of old city. it's great! saw the castle today, old city, did a free walking tour all around town this morning, going to kutna hora tomorrow, then jewish museum and churches friday! AND i had my first bagel since this summer this morning for breakfast and it was amaaaaaaaaazing!

kutna hora was very cool! easy and cheap 1 hr train ride from praha. 4 Swedes sat in our compartment with us. 2 couples traveling together for their wives 40th bdays. they were really funny and entertaining to travel with. talked the whole time about pretty much everything...our trips, politics, their lives in sweden, ours in the US/France, perceptions of each others' countries. swedes are awesome! we hung out with two young ones in the hostel in warsaw one morning and they wer esuper nice and fun, and now john and i both really wanna go to sweden! and bielorussie (belarus?) and ukraine too, but that's another story lol.

anyways, kutna hora...first saw some super old church (we do that about 5 times a day...), then another one except it's an ossuary, and thus is decorated with tooooons of bones. human bones. real ones! skulls too. so cool. even a bone chandelier in the middle. then walked around the main part of town, saw another big cathedral, chilled, got a local beer on the town square, and headed back. went to Wenceslas Square, walked around, got a pastry at the best pastry shop in the city according to our walking tour guide (banana chocolate pie thing...super good!), and then went back to the hostel. walked around some more just exploring, got stroopwafel which were kinda the most amazing thing in the world and thought of stephaaa/amsterdam.

we went to dinner at the best middle eastern restaurant (possibly the best food) in prague, according to katie, a friend from brandeis who studied abroad in prague last year. it was really crowded and had awesome decor, lights, etc. the food was amaaaaaaaazing! spinach pastry appetizers (think hamentaschen, but spinach), then i got a veggie mezze sampler plate, which had hummus, baba ghanoush, two cheese pastry things that were incredible, and stuffed grape leaves. it was all SO delicious and tasty! john got this iraki chicken special thing that is really popular there...shishkebabed chicken with a spicy red sauce and tomato, onion, pita served with it. both dishes were awesome! then bakalava and this indian sweet rice pudding for dessert with raisins, currants, cashews, cardamom and cinnamon. it sounds weird, but it was quite good. our server recommended it and the texture was really interesting, and great flavors. the bakalva came on a plate sprinkled with pistachios too. it was so pretty! to drink i got becherovka and tonic. becherovka's this super czech drink that katie said i had to get. it smells kinda like chartreuse, but taste isn't that similar. made with various herbs and plants and tastes herby and stuff i'd say. good and i def enjoyed it, but nothing to write home about (ironic...) then just walked around by the river for a while and in town!

today we did jewish stuff in the morning, many synagogues, museums, old relics and artifacts and info. pretty cool...saw the oldest synagogue in europe (the old new synagogue). it was suuuuuper crowded. tooooons of people. can only imagine what it'd be like in june, july or august... it's been raining today which is a bummer but whatever...first time the whole trip so can't complain!